Keeping score in politics an accepted part of game

Posted: Thursday, March 09, 2000

Revelations that Gov. Roy Barnes is keeping an electronic scorecard on how members of the General Assembly vote on his legislative agenda has brought howls of protest from Republicans, but we don't see what all the fuss is about.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported earlier this week that the governor relies on detailed computer records to tell him who voted for or against his proposals. He then assigns a score of zero to 100 to each lawmaker.

Sen. Eric Johnson of Savannah, the Republican leader in the upper chamber, accused the governor of duplicity, noting that Barnes is keeping score while publicly presenting himself as being an open-minded governor and favoring bipartisanship.

A political science professor from the University of Virginia opined that the tracking system could possibly be used by the governor to get revenge against those who don't support his program.

Well, duh.

Although they didn't always employ computers, governors, as well as presidents, have been keeping a tally of how members of the legislative branch responded to their proposals since the first yeas and nays were recorded.

It's called politics, and those who feign indignation at such tactics are either disingenuous or far too naive to be playing the game.

After all, any savvy legislator knows whether the governor signed into law or vetoed his or her favorite bill -- and will remember the next time a gubernatorial initiative comes along.

The only reason it's a news story this time is that the Barnes administration has modernized the process by using computers.

On the one hand, if the governor is using state equipment to do the tracking and state employees as scorekeepers, that could be an improper use of the taxpayers' dollars.

On the other hand, if the governor's system is faster and more efficient, it may actually save money. The job's going to be done, one way or the other, so if cyberscoring cuts costs, Barnes deserves an ''A'' for innovation in our grade book.